HoMY 31: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

As the third week of Advent begins, we have a new theme, and a differently-coloured candle to signify it… the pink candle symbolizes Joy. In my ongoing series, Then Sings My Soul: The Hymns of My Youth, we continue through the Advent edition with the Christmas carol I’ve selected for this week: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen. I’m quite sure that in my youth I must have thought the carol was telling a group of merry fellows to settle down and rest, in the “Silent Night” fashion… but there’s a comma, you see. The song is instructing gentlemen — and let’s include the ladies — to be comforted and take heart… for remember, “Christ our saviour was born on Christmas Day!”

While I’m on the subject of historical Christmas carols, it seems that St. Francis of Assisi was the first person to bring Christmas Carols into church services — prior to him, the church had sombre hymns to celebrate with sobriety (Oliver Cromwell actually banned Christmas Carols for not being sober enough), while carols were joyful songs of the street. Apparently St. Francis introduced carols in church during Christmas Midnight Mass in Greccio, Umbria in 1223. This particular carol was first formally published in Britain in 1833, though the author is unknown. An 1827 version of the carol was referred to as “an ancient version, sung in the streets of London.” It was, in fact, one of the carols that sung by the Waites, similar to the town criers, but who were musicians in Old England from medieval times to the the 19th century who would sing seasonal songs to “proper” people. They were abolished in 1835, but the name lingered specifically with respect to Christmas. (I wonder if this is associated with wassailing, or the tradition of caroling.)

The background is evident for the appearance of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” — albeit misquoted from our present lyrics — in the first stave of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol:

Foggier yet, and colder! Piercing, searching, biting cold. If the good Saint Dunstan had but nipped the Evil Spirit’s nose with a touch of such weather as that, instead of using his familiar weapons, then indeed he would have roared to lusty purpose. The owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, stooped down at Scrooge’s keyhole to regale him with a Christmas carol: but at the first sound of — “God bless you, merry gentleman! May nothing you dismay!” — Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action, that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost.

I’ve been adding a “soundtrack” to a number of the hymns and carols I feature, and this time around I’ve selected Loreena McKennitt not just for being Manitoban, but because I deeply like her music… her version of this week’s carol is quite different, not the upbeat English style that suggests happiness, but more of a Middle-Eastern version that suggests comfort, from A Winter Garden: Five Songs For The Season. We aren’t yet at the rejoicing of Christmas, and so this captures Advent well, I think — taking comfort and remembering our hope. The music is slightly haunting, and though it’s not a melody that may be as familiar… let us imagine that for all we know, the song of the angels to the shepherds that night might have been much more Middle-Eastern in its tone than we would readily expect.

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

God rest ye merry, gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember, Christ, our Saviour
Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan’s power
When we were gone astrayO tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

In Bethlehem, in Israel,
This blessed Babe was born
And laid within a manger
Upon this blessed morn
The which His Mother Mary
Did nothing take in scornO tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

From God our Heavenly Father
A blessed Angel came;
And unto certain Shepherds
Brought tidings of the same:
How that in Bethlehem was born
The Son of God by Name.O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

“Fear not then,” said the Angel,
“Let nothing you affright,
This day is born a Saviour
Of a pure Virgin bright,
To free all those who trust in Him
From Satan’s power and might.”O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

The shepherds at those tidings
Rejoiced much in mind,
And left their flocks a-feeding
In tempest, storm and wind:
And went to Bethlehem straightway
The Son of God to find.O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

And when they came to Bethlehem
Where our dear Saviour lay,
They found Him in a manger,
Where oxen feed on hay;
His Mother Mary kneeling down,
Unto the Lord did pray.O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

Now to the Lord sing praises,
All you within this place,
And with true love and brotherhood
Each other now embrace;
This holy tide of Christmas
All other doth deface.O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy